JTI bemoans wave of regulation and Government funding cuts as it launches a
mystery shopping exercise to ensure under 18 year-old children are not
buying its brands

One of the biggest cigarette makers in the world is spending £400,000 on a mystery shopping investigation after a dramatic funding cut at Trading Standards.

JTI - home to Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut - has hired inspectors to carry out spot checks on 2,500 newsagents, petrol forecourts and convenience stores acros the north-west of England, to ensure its brands are not being sold to under 18 year-olds.

The move is a political push to prove to regulators that it's better to prevent under-age smoking by restricting access rather than introducing EU legislation that would ban smaller 10-packs of its most popular brands and menthol cigarettes.

But the push also reflects the cigarette industry's concerns about the fallout from budget cuts on the ability of Trading Standards to carry out its work.

Figures from JTI show that "under age sales visits" by Trading Standards have fallen by a staggering 34 per cent since 2010. Over the same time, funding has come down by 26 per cent, in line with the Government's austerity drive.

The cuts come despite the fact that an estimated 15 per cent of 14 to 17 year-olds in the north-west are smokers.

JTI claims that while 35 per cent of these smokers get their cigarettes from older kids, 32 per cent buy them from the off-licence, 23 per cent from newsagents and 9 per cent from supermarkets. Cigarette industry figures are already furious at the ease with which criminal gangs are able to sell counterfeit or "illicit" cigarettes in Britain.

Jorge Da Motta, JTI managing director, said: "What we are trying to demonstrate is where you provide education targeted at the right groups, you can change behaviours.

"When we look at Governments - here in the UK and in other parts of the world - the knee jerk reaction to under-age smoking is regulation.

"We have seen a raft of regulation, it's layer upon layer. The ink hasn't even dried on display ban regulation and then you have the European Union's Tobacco Product Directive, it's terrible and nobody knows about it."

He added: "Through a combination of test purchasing to see which businesses may be under threat and training for those that need assistance, we will raise performance levels in this crucial area”

JTI said the EU move, by banning 10 packs and smaller quantities of roll-your-own, threatened to "supersize" smokers, by simply forcing them to buy packs of 20 instead.

The mystery shopping exercise in the North-West runs until April. It began last month, but JTI is refusing to reveal the early results. JTI confirmed it was not sending mystery shoppers into supermarkets or off-licences but refused to say why.

If the pilot "demonstrates results" it will be rolled out nationwide, alongside the "No ID, No Sale" campaign. All mystery shoppers are aged 18 or 19, and the work is designed to show that store managers and cashiers ask for ID rather than selling cigarettes, no questions asked.

More than 22 per cent of 14 to 17 year-olds smoked in the North-West of England in 2007, falling to 18 per cent in 2011 and 15 per cent this year.